Print

Mail

wiki links

Palin escapes gaffes, but Biden wins snap polls

US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, center, and her Democratic counterpart, Joseph Biden, exchange a few words following their debate on Thursday in St Louis, Missouri. PHOTO: AFP

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defied her critics with an aggressive, folksy showing in her debate clash with Democrat Joe Biden, escaping without a disastrous gaffe.

But Palin, who branded Barack Obama “dangerous” in a string of attacks on the Democratic nominee, appeared to do little to transform a race that polls suggest may be slipping away from her running mate John McCain.

The Alaska governor disappointed those who predicted she would fail miserably in the keenly awaited primetime debate, following a tirade of mocking assessments about her credentials ahead of the election on Nov. 4.

“I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I’ll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also,” Palin said.

Often winking at the camera, Palin fired off staccato soundbites and prepped answers which often ignored the questions, in a populist tone which framed her and McCain, and not Obama and Biden, as agents of change.

“I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter, even, of the mainstream media kind of telling viewers what they’ve just heard,” Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, said.

Palin has faced criticism for only doing a handful of media interviews and refusing to conduct a full-scale press conference.

Biden, a political veteran with 35 years of experience, provided detailed policy answers, trying to show a range of expertise across the economy, foreign policy and national security.

At one stage, he choked up when he talked about his wife and infant daughter killed in a 1972 car crash, in a moment which may have helped Biden forge an emotional connection with undecided voters.

Biden was careful not to attack Palin or her credentials directly, anxious about being branded as sexist or a bully, and sought to label McCain as a clone of unpopular US President George W. Bush.

“I haven’t heard how his policy will be different on Iran than George W. Bush’s,” Biden said. “I haven’t heard how his policy will be different on Israel than George Bush’s.”

“I haven’t heard how his policy on Afghanistan will be different than George Bush’s, I haven’t heard how his policy in Pakistan will be different than George Bush’s,” the senator said.

But Palin rebuked Biden for dwelling on the past.

“There is a time, too, when Americans say enough is enough with your ticket on constantly looking backwards and pointing fingers and doing the blame game,” she said.

Snap opinion polls suggested Biden won.

CNN’s sampling said he took the clash by 51 percent to 36 percent and a CBS poll of uncommitted voters put Biden at 46 percent against 21 percent who said Palin won.

The rivals clashed on the financial meltdown.

Palin warned Democrats would embrace wealth distribution and high tax policies that she said would limit growth. Biden argued that eight years of Republican policies were to blame for the economy’s nightmare.

“It was two Mondays ago that John McCain said at nine in the morning that fundamentals of the economy were strong,” Biden said.

“Later that day John McCain said we had an economic crisis — that doesn’t make John McCain a bad guy but it does point out he’s out of touch,” he said.
This story has been viewed 1194 times.